In 1984, Apple and IBM were fierce competitors, showcased by one famous
Super Bowl ad.1 The two companies were fighting a battle over
the personal computer, a market that would see around two million
devices sold that year.2 And the biggest robotics story was a small-budget film called The Terminator,
about a robot coming back in time to wipe out humanity and starring a
relatively unknown Austrian actor. It would become one of the biggest
box office hits of the year.

Fast forward thirty-three years. Apple and IBM are now partners,
collaborating on mobile applications and services for enterprise
clients, and the technology industry is estimated to ship more than two
billion devices in 2017.3 In 2015, Arnold Schwarzenegger revitalized his post-gubernatorial career with a big-budget film called Terminator Genisys, about a robot coming back in time to wipe out humanity. The more things change, the more some things stay the same.

This year, the media hype has been all about robots and artificial
intelligence (AI). Tesla CEO Elon Musk warned that AI could wipe out
humanity. Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates weighed in that AI was one of
our most pressing threats. And even the preeminent scientist Steven
Hawking opined that AI might be mankind's last invention.4
So, 2017 has been the year when AI became the meme that conquered the
world. Every startup is promising machine learning, big vendors are
rushing to brand their own AI engines, and economists worry that jobs
will become a thing of the past. Never mind the robot apocalypse.

The reality of AI is both less dramatic and more impactful than the
hype. We are entering a new era of computing that will bring tremendous
change. The past thirty-plus years have seen the personalization of
computing hardware, with single, big machines supplanted by
supercomputers in everyone's pockets and on-demand cloud services. This
technical advance has brought individuals access to services anytime,
anywhere and has spurred major transformations on college and university
campuses. In the new AI era, machine learning and big data, which
together enable cognitive computing, will bring personalization
through software to every corner of our economy. Higher education will
play a critical role in how this new era of the economy evolves, and
it's important that academy leaders understand the potential and the
risks in order to develop a strategy for navigating the coming
disruptions...

The Cognitive Campus What is the significance for higher education? These developments mean that the college or university will need to become a cognitive campus.
Consumer expectations will continue to evolve based on new personalized
services. Just as higher education institutions had to embrace personal
and mobile computing to serve students and educators, they will need to
develop deeper personalized services in the AI era. Students and other
constituents will request more personalization as their other service
providers get to "know them." The age of hyper-personalization will
continue to pressure institutions to meet rising demands in learning and
support services.

Second, AI will create opportunities for cost reduction and
administrative efficiency, just as in any other industry. Today, AI and
big data can improve IT security on campus by identifying threats
earlier and creating more rapid interventions. Institutions will deploy
AI tools across the student life cycle, improving retention and
optimizing outcomes, which frequently have a bottom-line effect on
costs.

But the most important issue for higher education is to prepare the
next generation to prosper in an AI-driven economy. A persistent debate
is whether higher education should focus on preparing students for
citizenship or for the workforce. The answer is both. With increasing
competition and new alternatives, institutions must align to workforce
needs and ensure that their students gain employment. The accelerating
rate of change in industry will require institutions to be far more
adaptable in the future. That pace of change will make the idea of
"lifelong learning" truly an imperative for the individual. In addition,
the broad impact of AI on society reinforces the need for higher
education to address questions of equity, ethics, and citizenship.
Students should be asking themselves: "How should my personal data be
used without my knowledge? Should it be? What do AI algorithms do for
me? What are their limits?" As AI systems work their way across the
economy, we will need a workforce and a citizenry that is
deeply familiar with the technology, its capability, and the social
issues it creates. We should view this familiarity as a requirement not
only for those steeped in the technology but for everyone...

Michael King ends his article with the following: The cognitive era will unleash a new wave of innovation to reengineer
business processes, lower costs, and build new personalized services.
Industries and jobs will be transformed in an accelerating pace of
change. Education will be critical for individuals and society to
prosper in this new era. Higher education leaders should begin preparing
their institutions for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Higher education institutions can become the "learning home" for
individuals throughout their lives. Cognitive computing will reach
prospective students sooner in their learning journey, guide them
through the right learning programs, and provide ongoing support to
retain the relevance of their skills. Institutions will become vital to
the long-term success of their learners. These institutions can be the
steward of individual skill profiles and can leverage cognitive tools to
become a pervasive advisor in a rapidly changing economy.Read more...

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About Me

Hello, my name is Helge Scherlund and I am the Education Editor and Online Educator of this personal weblog and the founder of eLearning • Computer-Mediated Communication Center.
I have an education in the teaching adults and adult learning from Roskilde University, with Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Human Resource Development (HRD) as specially studied subjects. I am the author of several articles and publications about the use of decision support tools, e-learning and computer-mediated communication. I am a member of The Danish Mathematical Society (DMF), The Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics (DSTS) and an individual member of the European Mathematical Society (EMS). Note: Comments published here are purely my own and do not reflect those of my current or future employers or other organizations.